M 31

The sound of sirens grew louder than before. The warning lights hanging from the ceiling spun around. It seemed like the security level had been raised. Sehwa’s legs were running like crazy. One of his shoes had already come off a long time ago. The soles of his feet were sore and painful. Still, he couldn’t stop. Ki Tae-jeong was already ahead of Sehwa by a long time,

“It’s over there!”

​The soldiers guarding the shelter were chasing after them. The sound of footsteps running towards him was getting closer. The sound of several military boots running down the hallway of the shelter was loud. Sehwa turned pale and barely took his steps. It felt like a hand was reaching out from behind him and grabbing his hair at any minute.​

“Crazy… Ugh, seriously…”

​A little while ago, Ki Tae-jeong slowly began to speed up his walking pace as the entrance to the shelter got closer. The slightly fast pace suddenly turned into a run, then transformed into a terrifying sprint. That was it. Ki Tae-jeong charged at the soldiers with his bare body. He seemed to have a knack for reading all the bullets coming at him as he dodged them well, then accurately and quickly strangled someone and snatched the gun. Even if he had been targeting that person from the beginning, it seemed impossible to be so agile.

After that, it was nothing more than Ki Tae-jeong’s one-sided slaughter. After entering the building, he went ahead of Sehwa and took down the obstacles and soldiers in front of him. Sometimes, when he thought Sehwa might be captured, he came and rescued him. Of course Sehwa was grateful. But if he was going to be so kind, if he promised to save him… Couldn’t he have shown a little more compassion? Ki Tae-jeong only shows up when Sehwa seemed he would really die, dealt with the situation, and disappeared again. A person with such a tall and well-built stature moved at the speed of a missile.

​“D-Director…”​

​The barely audible voice was more like hissing (a continuous noise resembling ‘shh, shh’ among the interference in a receiver, or the hissing sound of a snake) rather than a human voice. Even though he knew Ki Tae-jeong wouldn’t hear anyway, Sehwa called him several times. He didn’t expect Ki Tae-jeong to adjust his walking to his own pace.  Still, it would be great if he could just stay a little ahead, enough to easily deal with the guys chasing from behind. Just enough to make him feel less anxious…

​“Crazy… Ugh, bastard… Seriously.”​

Ki Tae-jeong said he would take Sehwa with him. He said he would save him. Sehwa couldn’t breathe so much that his stomach felt like it was going to burst. Sehwa’s leg was so sore that he couldn’t even walk, let alone run. He didn’t even have the energy to speak. However, Sehwa felt like he would just collapse like this if he didn’t at least curse at Ki Tae-jeong. Annoyance and resentment seemed like the only driving force that could help him endure and survive.​

​“Heuk, ugh…”​

​Sehwa, who rested on his knees for a moment to catch his breath, gathered his strength again and narrowed the distance between him and Ki Tae-jeong. Of course, it was slower than a snail’s pace… He was not sure if it could be considered narrowing the gap.

The shelter was one-story and had a simple interior. It didn’t seem to be originally designed for use as a bomb shelter, probably repurposed from something like a warehouse. There weren’t many people living in this area, and 99% of them were criminals hiding their identities. There was probably never any intention to evacuate the residents here from the very beginning.​

Anyway, it was a fact that the corridors had been neglected for a long time. Iron shelves were set up on both sides of the corridor. While they were filled with equipment such as gas masks and fire extinguishers required for evacuation, stacking them like this in the corridor only served as an obstacle when moving. Even the emergency exits in the House were not overloaded like this.​

The corridor was a bit messy, but fortunately the path wasn’t complicated. Sehwa didn’t have to worry about what would happen if he crossed paths with Ki Tae-jeong; all he just had to do was go straight down the corridor. However, that also meant that he had no choice but to run forward, squeezing his way through the narrow corridors filled with objects, while exposing his location to the enemies. Without knowing what waiting at the end.​

“Ugh!”

A piercing and tearing sound ripped through the air, brushing by Sehwa’s head as soon as he lifted his head, which had been lowered for a moment. He was surprised when he noticed Ki Tae-jeong pointing his gun at him. Sehwa didn’t dare confront him because even the slightest movement could result in him being shot. Gunshots and unfamiliar screams echoing one after another quite close by.

“Huack!”

​Sehwa looked back with as much courage as he could, but his knees gave out and he fell down. Two men, with holes in their foreheads, were slowly collapsing right in front of Sehwa. As they plummeted to the ground, the thick and sturdy clubs they were holding created a dull sound. Sehwa wasn’t sure when they got so near, but it appeared they were about to hit him from behind with those clubs.

“I’ve almost taken care of them, so you can walk a bit slower now.”

“R-really? How can you…”

“If this many people died, there wouldn’t be many people left.”

Hopefully, that was the case. Sehwa approached Ki Tae-jeong with a gaunt expression. He wanted to go as far away as possible from the corpse that had fallen behind him.​

“By the way, try doing that thing again from earlier.”

“What?”

“Huack, that thing.”

​Ki Tae-jeong licked his lips, saying that it was the first time he had heard something like that from him.​

“You didn’t cry like that even when I almost folded your body.”

Sehwa’s mouth dropped open. Even though it was ridiculous, there might be no suitable reaction for such a situation. No, even now, in this situation, does he really want to think about sex?

“Ah. I cancel the ‘you can walk slowly’ statement. You’re too slow.”

“…Director.”​

Although he called with a somewhat angrily boiling voice, it sounded like the whining of a young animal due to his lack of energy. Sehwa felt like his stomach was going to explode in many ways. He wanted to ask Ki Tae-jeong a question. Considering that Sehwa is a civilian, this was not something you could call slow. Of course, he couldn’t walk properly now, but couldn’t Ki Tae-jeong at least think about why his body became like this? Above all, was it normal to ask someone who was freaking out at the sight of a man dying in front of him to let out that moan again when you remembered having sex with him?

​However, Ki Tae-jeong did not wait for Sehwa, who had so much to say. He stared at Sehwa, who was alone in his thoughts, and quickly shifted his steps towards the fallen men. He casually snatched the guns from their waistbands and pointed it towards their back. Even though it seemed like he was shooting casually without even looking, every time Ki Tae-jeong pulled the trigger, loud and piercing screams echoed through the corridor. The sound of flesh being torn apart vividly reached even from a distance.

“This turned out to be a little embarrassing. Still, it’s a military facility in name only, but it’s so shabby…”​

Ki Tae-jeong fired indiscriminately at the ceiling after counting the remaining bullets and casually threw away the gun. The situation became even more chaotic as a result of the destruction of some warning lights.

​”I don’t have dignity left for myself, you know?”

​Sehwa couldn’t understand why Ki Tae-jeong was squandering precious bullets like that, but he no longer expected an explanation or common sense from him. However, Sehwa felt at ease thinking that way since Ki Tae-jeong intended to shoot a new gun loaded with bullets.​

​“I’m sure the drugs was hidden there…”​

“Yes? Where?”​

​Ki Tae-jeong tapped the bag inside the shelf. It seemed to be a supplement that could be used to replenish the powder in the fire extinguisher when it ran out. Sehwa’s face brightened.​

“It’s perfect for camouflage. It’s white and powdery.”

​He examined the shelf after hearing that and discovered that there were more than enough replacement pouches. Even though there was only one fire extinguisher on this shelf, there were more than 10 pouches packed with replacement.

“Should we store it now?”

“No. You must demonstrate how to fill the drug here. So Lieutenant Park can make it into a hologram.”

​”Filling?”​

“Only then can I present it as a bargaining chip to Kim Seok-cheol. Simply displaying the syringe will cause him to extend an olive branch. He’ll have no idea where you got the thing.”

​“Re, really? What should I do? I didn’t bring anything in particular…”​

“Well, I do know of one thing that might be a good place to put it… There’s usually a situation room or a cubicle about this distance away, and that’s where we usually keep it.

However, Ki Tae-jeong frowned, saying he couldn’t see it.​

“What is it?”

“A bomb.”